Indy Digest: Jan. 19, 2022
If you’re on social media, or you regularly follow the news, you’ve probably seen or read about a hubbub over, of all things, gas stoves.
It’s a completely stupid, made-up, misdirected and misleading hubbub.
Daniel Cohan, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, writing for The Conversation, explains how it all came about:
This debate reignited on Jan. 9, 2023, when Richard Trumka Jr., a member of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, told Bloomberg News that the agency planned to consider regulating gas stoves due to concerns about their health effects. “Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” he noted.
Politicians reacted with overheated outrage, putting gas stove ownership on a par with the right to bear arms and religious freedom. CPSC Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric tried to douse the uproar, stating that he was “not looking to ban gas stoves” and that his agency “has no proceeding to do so.” Neither does the Biden administration support a ban, a White House spokesperson said.
Nevertheless, congressional Republicans raced to the barricades, introducing bills with titles like the Guard America’s Stoves (GAS) Act and the Stop Trying to Obsessively Vilify Energy (STOVE) Act.
So … if you see politicians saying things like this …
… please know that—and forgive me for the expletive, but this is the technical term for Tweets like this—it is complete and total bullshit.
So now that we’ve established that Republicans are just making up this Biden’s-banning-gas-stoves nonsense … let’s take a critical, scientific look at gas stoves.
Back to Cohan, writing for The Conversation:
Direct impacts from gas stoves are a much more urgent concern for human health than for Earth’s climate. Gas stoves are a leading indoor source of nitrogen dioxide, or NO₂, which can cause or worsen respiratory illnesses in people who are exposed to it.
For example, scientific studies show that living in a home with a gas stove increases children’s risk of asthma by nearly one-third and contributes to pulmonary disease in adults.
So … yikes. That’s not good.
Digging even deeper, there’s yet another reason—a greedy, money-grubbing reason—for this hubbub over gas stoves. Back to Cohan and The Conversation:
This skirmish may seem like a tempest in a teapot, but it reveals important contours of the battlefield on which climate politics are waged. As I explain in my book, “Confronting Climate Gridlock: How Diplomacy, Technology, and Policy Can Unlock a Clean Energy Future,” gas stoves matter to climate and to the gas industry because they serve as gateway appliances to the dominant residential uses of natural gas: heating and hot water.
Interesting. Later, Cohan writes:
The American Gas Association has promoted the notion that gas stoves make skilled cooks since the 1930s, when it introduced the advertising slogan “Now you’re cooking with gas.” An AGA executive planted the phrase with writers for comedian Bob Hope. Soon it was picked up by comedian Jack Benny, and even by Daffy Duck. The phrase has also appeared over time in social media endorsements and hashtags.
Gas burners do provide more control than many stoves with electric coils, especially older models, which can be slow to heat up and cool down. Today, however, many chefs, consumers and experts say gas is no longer the obvious choice. Magnetic induction cooktops, which cook using electricity to generate a magnetic field, heat faster, control temperatures more precisely and use less energy than other stoves.
So … in other words: Gas stoves can cause health problems; there are big-money interests invested in making sure gas stoves continue to be a thing; gas stoves aren’t needed these days anyway; and despite all that, Joe Biden isn’t seriously considering banning them, no matter what the Republicans say … even though, based on all the facts, he perhaps should be.
—Jimmy Boegle
From the Independent
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By Kevin Fitzgerald
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According to the company’s Paycheck Protection Program application, Desert Payroll Solutions had a lot of employees back in 2020—185 of them. Based on those employees, the company was approved for a $1,370,560 loan on June 15, 2020.
Civic Solutions: The Section 14 Survivors Group Plans to Do More Public Outreach in 2023
By Melissa Daniels
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Civil rights attorney Areva Martin, who began working with the Section 14 Survivors group late last summer, said there’s more foundational work to be done outside of the government and legal processes.
Hiking With T: It’s a New Year, So It’s a Fine Time to Explore New Trails
By Theresa Sama
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Of course, there are plenty of trails throughout the Coachella Valley—but did you know there are three new trails that have opened within the last five years?
The Weekly Independent Comics Page for Jan. 19, 2023!
By Staff
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Topics found on this week’s comics page include yak hide, Steve Scalise, ham on a string, coal—and much more!
How Sweet It Is: Muses and Patroness Circle of McCallum Theatre Fundraiser Supporting Arts Education Slated for Feb. 21 (Nonprofit Submission)
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January 17th, 2023
The Muses and Patroness Circle’s “How Sweet It Is” will be an evening of glamour that starts with a cocktail reception with DJ Modgirl spinning the hottest retro tunes, as well as a photo booth, delicious hors d’oeuvres and more.
Steinway Society of Riverside County Honors Jimi ‘Fitz’ Fitzgerald at Bravo Children in Music Fundraiser on Feb. 19 (Nonprofit Submission)
By Pamela Bieri
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The Steinway Society of Riverside County is looking to expand to every elementary school in the Coachella Valley—and the organization is holding a fundraiser to that end on Feb. 19.
Desert Arc to Host Fifth Annual ‘Champions of Change’ on Feb. 8 (Nonprofit Submission)
By Madeline Zuckerman
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Desert Arc will host its fifth annual Champions of Change Recognition Awards Luncheon on Wednesday, Feb. 8.
Olive Crest’s Third Annual Golf Invitational, on Feb. 6, Features USC Football Legends (Nonprofit Submission)
By Madeline Zuckerman
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Olive Crest, known for its dedication to preventing child abuse, will host its third annual Invitational Golf Tournament at the Classic Club on Monday, Feb. 6.
More News
• Palm Springs wastewater testing for SARS-CoV-2 continues to show that the levels of the virus are more or less holding steady. According to the most recent report, with results from last week: “The average of 687,544 copies (per liter) from the previous week went down to an average of 576,985 copies/L for January 9 and 10.”
• Down in Indio, wastewater testing by the Valley Sanitary District shows all good news: SARS-CoV-2 levels are steady to decreasing; RSV is down; influenza is way down.
• After several days of closures due to technical issues, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway reopened yesterday (Wednesday). City News Service, via NBC Palm Springs, reports: “The issue first surfaced Sunday morning, when a power outage delayed the tram’s opening until 11 a.m., according to a statement from the tramway. By around 3:40 p.m. Sunday, tramway officials announced that operations were being halted for the day due to technical issues. Tram cars transported guests back to the ground Sunday, but due to the continuing technical issues, the tramway remained closed all day Monday and Tuesday. ‘We believe the issues were caused by power surges from the storm,’ the tramway’s maintenance vice president, Joe Rose, said in a statement. ‘We have since remedied the issue and have run multiple tests to make sure everything is operating as usual.’”
• We finally have new plans from College of the Desert for the much-delayed Palm Springs campus, and they’re … interesting. The Palm Springs Post reports: “The latest plans for a College of the Desert campus, to be reviewed at a meeting this week, call for slightly more building space and the continued absence of a learning hotel pushed for by leaders in the hospitality industry. A 42-page slideshow outlining the latest thinking will be reviewed at a Friday College of the Desert Board of Trustees meeting. In it, 152,000 gross square feet of building space is shown—an increase of about 10,000 square feet compared to previous plans. The plans show that most of the classrooms and other student facilities will be in a two-story building located at the corner of South Farrell Drive and East Baristo Road. While parking and a campus services building is also shown in schematic drawings, roughly half of the 29 acres of land will remain undeveloped.”
• Amazon is ending its Amazon Smile program. The company says it’s doing so because the program wasn’t working very well; TechCrunch reports there are other reasons, mostly involving Amazon’s bottom line: “Just a few days after announcing a significant round of layoffs that will impact 18,000 employees, Amazon is trying to find money wherever it can as the company announced that it would end AmazonSmile. AmazonSmile is a donation program that redirects 0.5% of the cost of all eligible products toward charities. … ‘After almost a decade, the program has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped. With so many eligible organizations—more than 1 million globally—our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin,’ the company wrote. … Charities that have participated in the AmazonSmile program will receive a one-time donation from Amazon that will be equivalent to three months of AmazonSmile donations. It’s a sort of severance package for nonprofits. The end of the program is going to have an impact on Amazon’s bottom line in two ways. First, the company no longer has to set aside 0.5% on purchases made on AmazonSmile. Second, there were people actively working on the separate storefront, charity relationships and more. Shutting down AmazonSmile means that the company can lay off some people who were working on the program.”
• And finally … fonts are important, dammit—and, as this Washington Post piece details, they’re controversial: “The U.S. State Department is going sans serif: It has directed staff at home and overseas to phase out the Times New Roman font and adopt Calibri in official communications and memos, in a bid to help employees who are visually impaired or have other difficulties reading. In a cable sent Tuesday and obtained by The Washington Post, Secretary of State Antony Blinken directed the department to use a larger sans-serif font in high-level internal documents, and gave the department’s domestic and overseas offices until Feb. 6 to ‘adopt Calibri as the standard font for all requested papers.’ ‘The Times (New Roman) are a-Changin,’ read the subject line. Blinken’s cable said the shift to Calibri will make it easier for people with disabilities who use certain assistive technologies, such as screen readers, to read department communication. The change was recommended by the secretary’s office of diversity and inclusion, but the decision has already ruffled feathers among aesthetic-conscious employees who have been typing in Times New Roman for years in cables and memos from far-flung embassies and consulates around the world.”
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